According to HealthDay (2/18, Preidt), investigators “analyzed nearly 4,000 firearm suicides and found that long guns, not handguns, are more often the method of choice for youths and people in rural areas.” Specifically, the “analysis of Maryland data for 2003 to 2018 revealed that about 45% of children and teens used long guns such as rifles and shotguns to kill themselves, compared to 20% of seniors.” The study’s lead author said, “Many of the safety protections that we have in place around the country typically don’t apply to long guns, and the data suggest that our strategy needs to be modified.” The findings were published online Feb. 3 in the journal Injury Epidemiology.

Related Links:

— “Shotguns Often Play Tragic Role in Rural Teens’ Suicides: Study, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 18, 2020

Healio (2/18, Gramigna) reports, “Early improvements of individual symptoms might contribute to later treatment response among patients with Alzheimer’s disease receiving antipsychotics for neuropsychiatric symptoms,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data from the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness-Alzheimer’s Disease,” which “included data from 421 patients with DSM-IV Alzheimer’s Disease receiving antipsychotics for neuropsychiatric symptoms.” The findings of the “re-analysis study” were published online in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Early individual symptom response to antipsychotics impacts later response in patients with Alzheimer’s
, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 18, 2020

Healio (2/17, Gramigna) reported, “Memory suppression is vital to positive adaptation following traumatic experiences,” investigators concluded in a “brain imaging study conducted in survivors of a terrorist attack.” For the study, researchers “implemented neutral and inoffensive intrusive memories in a lab setting among a group of 102 individuals exposed to the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, as well as 73 nonexposed individuals who were not in Paris during the attacks.” Of these people, “a total of 55 exposed individuals had been diagnosed with PTSD.” The study revealed that “upon reexperiencing intrusive memories, nonexposed individuals and exposed individuals without PTSD could adaptively suppress memory activity; however, exposed individuals with PTSD could not.” The findings were published online Feb. 14 in the journal Science.

Related Links:

— “PTSD brain mechanisms revealed using data from survivors of 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 17, 2020

HealthDay (2/17, Mozes) reports, “More than a quarter of all opioid overdoses in the United States involve teenagers, and a full fifth of those cases were likely suicide attempts,” researchers concluded after performing “an in-depth analysis of nearly 754,000 American opioid poisoning cases that occurred between 2005 and 2018,” all of which “had been reported to the U.S. National Poison Data System.” Nearly “208,000 of those cases involved children 18 years old or younger.”

MedPage Today (2/17, Boyles) reports that one “particularly troubling finding in the adolescent data was the high percentage of teens who were using opioids to attempt suicide.” The findings are scheduled for presentation this week at a meeting of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Related Links:

— “1 in 4 Opioid ODs Involves Kids and Teens, “Alan Mozes, HealthDay, February 17, 2020

HealthDay (2/14, Preidt) reported, “U.S. soldiers who suffer a moderate or severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) are more likely to suffer” from a mental illness “than those with other serious injuries,” researchers concluded after analyzing “the records of nearly 5,000 U.S. military members – mostly from the Army or Marines – who were severely injured during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2002 and 2011.” The study revealed that “71% of the severely injured soldiers in the study were later diagnosed with at least one of five mental [illnesses]: post-traumatic stress disorder…anxiety and mood disorders, adjustment reactions, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, and cognitive disorders.” Investigators also found that “the rate of mental [illnesses] among seriously injured soldiers is much higher than previously reported.” The findings were published online Dec. 31 in the journal Military Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Traumatic Brain Injuries Raise Risk of Psychiatric Ills in Soldiers, ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 14, 2020

HealthDay (2/13) reports, “Ketamine use among electronic dance music party-goers is much higher than previously thought,” with “unintentional use” appearing “to play a role,” investigators concluded after surveying “hundreds of adults entering electronic dance music parties in New York City about their past-year drug use.” Some 200 people “provided hair samples that were analyzed to detect drug use in the past 12 months.” These hair analyses showed that even though nearly “15 percent of the party-goers said they’d used ketamine in the past year, the hair analyses showed that about 37% tested positive for ketamine,” indicating that “when both self-reported use and hair testing are taken into consideration, actual ketamine use among these party-goers is closer to 41%.” The findings were published online Jan. 29 in a research letter in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Use of Club Drug ‘Special K’ Could Be Underreported, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 13, 2020

Healio (2/13, Gramigna) reports, “Individuals with depression, especially men, may be at increased risk for all-cause and” cardiovascular disease (CVD) “mortality,” investigators concluded after following 512,712 “adults aged 30 to 79 years who were included in the China Kadoorie Bank (CKB) study, as well as” 26,298 “adults aged 32 to 104 years who were included in the Dongfeng-Tongji (DFTJ) study.” The findings were published online Feb. 12 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Researchers find more evidence for link between depression and all-cause, CVD mortality, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 13, 2020

Psychiatric News (2/13) reports, “Psychiatric medications do not appear to interfere with weight loss in” patients with obesity “who have had bariatric surgery,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data on 190 patients who had bariatric surgery,” 61 of whom “were taking psychiatric medications before surgery, and 50” who “continued taking psychiatric medications one year after surgery.” The findings were published in the January/February issue of Psychosomatics, the journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Psychiatric Medications Not Associated With Poorer Weight Loss Following Bariatric Surgery, Psychiatric News, February 13, 2020

TIME (2/12, Oaklander) reports on “Mental Health First Aid at Work, a training that the National Council for Behavioral Health provides, for a cost, to a growing number of corporations.” The article follows the experiences of some employees of Delta Air Lines who took the training in order to learn how to “spot symptoms and warning signs of possible mental health concerns in a colleague, reach out and offer initial help, then guide them to professional help and the resources the company offers, like short-term counseling through the free employee assistance program (EAP) and a confidential app that lets you chat immediately with behavioral health coaches.” Such mental health training is growing among organizations. For example, “the Center for Workplace Mental Health at the American Psychiatric Association Foundation is developing a digital training for managers called ‘Notice. Talk. Act. at Work,’ which teaches the early warning signs of mental health issues and how to have empathetic, compassionate conversations.”

Related Links:

— “How Companies Teach Their Employees First Aid for Mental Health, “Mandy Oaklander, TIME, February 12, 2020

MedPage Today (2/12, Hlavinka) reports, “Men who closely aligned with masculinity norms were more than twice as likely to die by suicide as men who did not,” research indicated. For the study, investigators identified “20,745 adolescents recruited in 1995 as part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health),” then “matched with death records in 2014.” The study revealed that “‘high-traditional masculinity’ men – or those with at least a 73% probability of being male based on their responses to questions about things like not crying, physical fitness, and fighting – were more likely to die by suicide than men who did not identify as strongly with such norms.” At the same time, “so-called high-traditional masculinity men were also 1.45 times less likely to report suicidal ideation.” The findings were published online Feb. 12 in a research letter in JAMA Psychiatry. Healio (2/12, Gramigna) also covers the study.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)